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Stan & Ollie: A perfect little film

If you have not seen this one yet, I would definitely recommend it. But beware, you won’t be laughing. The film is cleverly named Stan & Ollie, not Laurel & Hardy, as the comedic duo was known on stage and in films. This is not a Laurel and Hardy film, instead, it’s a film about the real Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. It shows the people behind the smiles, the bad business decisions they made, their unsuccessful personal lives, their beautiful but difficult friendship, their struggles and hardships, their fights and their joys. It’s a perfect little film that does them justice while paying homage to their incredible contribution to comedy.
Stan & Ollie movie poster
The title roles are perfectly cast. Steve Coogan is brilliant as Stan Laurel, showing the three-dimensional man as well as the comedic genius and the on-stage funny man. Definitely one of the best things I have ever seen from Mr Coogan. Oliver Hardy is very respectfully portrayed by John C. Reilly. His performance is equally heartwarming as it is heartwrenching. And the physical resemblance of these two actors and the legends whose lives they inhabit is uncanny to say the least.




Stan & Ollie is a beautifully executed reminder of the ups and downs of life, and of the power of friendship. For many, it will reacquaint them with the two men who have defined the baseline for comedy, while others will hopefully meet these men and their comedic genius for the first time, making them go back to the old material that will once again manage to put a smile on the faces of a new generation. I like to think that both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy would have been greatly honoured to leave such a legacy.


Stan & Ollie (2018)
Directed by John S. Baird
Written by Jeff Pope and AJ Marriot
Starring Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Nina Arianda



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